Math club building both competitive as well as inclusive social network

On Tuesday, Sept. 26, the math club members came together and sold $1 baked goods in the Tiger’s Den to earn money to help them in future math competitions. The math competitions the math club will be competing in will take place each month leading up to March, and after that those who qualify after competing in the initial contests will take place in the state, national and international contests.

“There’s various events depending on the individual. The contest is like a relay. You’ll have a team of up to six people who will be able to essentially do this math problem, and then their result relies on the next part, so it’s very important to be fast but also accurate, ” math club adviser Alexis Steinlage said.

Although not having a goal for the bake sale, the math club is hoping to use the earnings to buy the preparation materials needed for this year’s competitions. This year’s math contest is also the first year that CFHS’s math club will be competing in the different events and the state and national competitions if qualified.

mMath club doesn’t always do math, though, as they often have a bi-weekly rotation as the students want math club to also have a social aspect and use math club as a way to connect with others.

“We do math preparation every other week, so it’s like we meet weekly, but it’s like a bi-weekly rotation, and on the opposite weeks we do something more fun with the group,” Steinlage said. “Sometimes we play games, like Jeopardy that we’ve played a lot in the past. We have this math game called Set that’s really fun to play—basically anything that’s social and fun sometimes.”

Anyone can join math club at any time during the school year and competition participation is not required. Everyone is allowed to drop in on the weeks that math club is playing games rather than preparing for competitions as the club is more student-led.

“It’s so much fun because sometimes we’re talking about these really advanced math topics because some of the kids are in calculus and then other times we’re just talking about philosophical stuff,” Steinlage said.